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1. On June 30, a domestic commercial rocket fell and exploded near a residential area in Gongyi, Henan Province during a test run, causing public concern. Fortunately, before the test, the local government had organized the evacuation of the surrounding villagers, and there were no casualties.
2. The rocket named "Tianlong III", and its product performance is comparable to Musk's SpaceX's current main rocket. The thrust of the power system test was extremely large, but there was an accident, which pushed China's commercial aerospace to the forefront.
3. The reason why the test was carried out in Gongyi is that several abandoned mine pits in the area can block noise and save the cost of excavating the mountain, and similar abandoned mines are also the choice of many domestic aerospace companies. The transportation conditions that are convenient for transporting rockets are the reasons why such test sites cannot be selected in the Northwest Desert and other locations. However, the choice of such a densely populated area for the experiment has considerable hidden dangers, and it also puts a question mark on the selection of similar test sites in the future.
4. Although the current full-thrust test of rocket propulsion system can expose the problem to the ground to the greatest extent, it is very dangerous, effective but simple and crude. In particular, there is no steel cable restraint system for this rocket test, and such a low-level mistake is really not suitable, and I hope that this time the matter will be exchanged for a more stable development of the industry.
On the afternoon of Sunday, June 30, 2024, several videos began to circulate online, in which a rocket rose from the ground in the mountains, but when it rose to about 3,000 meters, it turned and crashed, sending a huge fireball over the mountains.
According to the accent in the photographer's mouth, Henan was quickly located.
But if you are a netizen who cares about aerospace, you will know that this is the full-thrust test run of the domestic commercial aerospace company Tianbing Technology in Xuezhuang Village, Dayugou Town, Gongyi today.
It was just an accident that turned the test car into a test flight.
Netizens ridiculed that the good news is that there is enough motivation. The bad news is that enough is that it just collapsed.
But some netizens also questioned whose rocket test flight would be carried out near residential areas? Isn't it dangerous?
Why in Gongyi, Henan?
Gongyi City is located between Zhengzhou and Luoyang cities in Henan Province, belongs to Zhengzhou, and is named after "mountains and rivers are blocked, consolidated and unstoppable", which is the eastern mountainous area of Luoyang Basin, and has the exclusive place name of "Gong" as early as the Shang Dynasty.
In Xuezhuang Village, Dayugou Town, 10 kilometers southwest of Gongyi City, there are several abandoned mine pits in the mountains, which are of moderate size and have a certain noise blocking effect, which is just convenient for making an engine test bench and saves the cost of excavating the mountain.
A number of domestic aerospace companies have a similar option, that is, to use abandoned mines. It is distributed in Huzhou, Zhejiang, Bengbu, Anhui, Chizhou, Guangzhou, Xintai, Shandong and other semi-mountainous areas.
Tianbing Technology, a private commercial aerospace company, was established on April 10, 2019, and has been successfully launched in Jiuquan, and has also created 8 commercial space records such as the successful first flight of a private liquid rocket in the world.
According to the description of Tianbing Technology, Tianlong-3 is a large-scale liquid launch vehicle tailored for the construction of China's satellite Internet constellation, and its product performance is comparable to SpaceX's current main rocket - Falcon 9.
With a diameter of 3.8 meters, a take-off weight of 590 tons, a low earth orbit (LEO) capacity of 17 tons, and a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) capacity of 14 tons, this is the largest liquid commercial rocket in China. It uses a nine-engine parallel structure similar to that of the Falcon 9.
Nine 100-ton TH-12 engines make up one in the center of the first (lowest stage) of the rocket and eight around it. The propellant combination is liquid oxygen kerosene.
On June 11, 2024, the first stage of Tianlong-3 rocket completed the final assembly and general test and was sent to Gongyi, Henan.
At the end of June, that is, today's June 30, the first domestic nine-machine parallel power system hot test was carried out. It is planned to go to the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan in September to carry out the first flight test.
The first full-thrust test run of a rocket in China
Some people ask, is this a test flight or a test car? Whether it is a rocket test or an engine test. To be precise, it was a full-thrust test run of the rocket propulsion system.
A relatively complete all-arrow system is pressed on the launch pad to do a full-power experiment for more than a minute, which is a practice pioneered by SpaceX, which can expose the problem of the rocket to the greatest extent.
In the past, countries did not dare to do it, and only the single test run of the rocket engine. That is, the engine is ignited on the special test bench of the rocket engine on the ground, and then the performance indicators of the engine are tested.
Although the current full-thrust test of the rocket propulsion system is dangerous, it can expose the problem to the ground to the greatest extent, which is a simple and crude but effective method.
The test run of the power system of the Tianlong-3 launch vehicle is also the simultaneous ignition of nine engines of the first-stage rocket, which is the first power system test with the largest thrust of the launch vehicle in the mainland at this stage.
According to the parameters of the rocket indicators, compared with the previous maximum thrust test of China's aerospace industry, it has increased by 2 times. However, this is the first time in the country that there has been an accident.
According to the report of Tianbing Technology Company, during the test run, the first sub-stage rocket ignited normally, and the engine thrust reached 820 tons. However, due to the failure of the structure of the connection between the rocket body and the test bench, a sub-stage rocket unexpectedly detached from the launch pad.
After an accidental liftoff, the computer control system on the arrow actively shut down. The rocket fell into the mountains 1.5 kilometers southwest of the test bench, and the remaining fuel (kerosene and liquid oxygen) exploded and caught fire, creating a huge fireball.
Despite the crash in the mountains, the shock wave of the explosion was felt in the urban area. And still caused economic damage, the glass of the houses in the surrounding villages was shattered. Some people also reported that the glass of the school's cafeteria, dormitory, and teaching building was broken, and the ceiling of the office was dropped.
Fortunately, before the test, the local government organized safety measures and organized the evacuation of surrounding villagers in advance. Before the rocket was tested and exploded, the villagers were evacuated.
The village cadres issued a notice saying that "after receiving the notice from the government, the "Heavenly Soldiers" test will be completed before 10 o'clock this morning, and the time will be two days (waiting for the notice to return)."
A brief summary of the accident
Some netizens broke the news: At the beginning, I told the boss that if I didn't hit it, the steel cable was not firmly fixed! More steel cables will have to be used to secure it! But the boss didn't listen to persuasion, saying where would he buy steel cables? Take a trip to the city to ship it back tomorrow.
It's July 1st tomorrow, and it can't be delayed until July, so you have to ignite the test today, and time is running out! The result was good, the thrust of the simultaneous ignition of 9 engines was too great, and the test bench did not fix the rocket after all, and flew up!
Fortunately, the members of the experimental team were fine, and they were slightly frightened, and when the rocket fell, it landed on a barren hill in a no-man's land! No one was hurt! The lesson is profound, the next test is estimated to be moved to the desert no man's land in the northwest, and the first flight of Tianlong 3 is estimated to be postponed for half a year!
This sounds like a made-up joke, but the actual restraint system just didn't pass the assessment. When SpaceX was doing static ignition, although it was located at the launch site by the Texas Sea, it was still strictly guarded.
There are many steel cables around the rocket, plus ground anchor bolts, and a counterweight pressure bin at the top, which has a full 120% tethered margin, which absolutely guarantees that the rocket will not fly out of the static ignition.
And judging from the photos released by Tianbing Technology before, there is indeed no steel cable restraint device on the top of the rocket body connected to the ground.
Judging from the report, it is also said that the connection structure between the rocket body and the rocket test bench failed, which means that the rocket test run of Tianbing Technology does not have a steel cable restraint system.
It's normal for innovation to be unexpected, but low-level mistakes are inappropriate. For example, in the first test of Musk's "Starship", in order to save money and hurry, the ground was not strengthened, and the concrete fragments of the ground that were washed out and rebounded collapsed many engines, which eventually led to failure.
Musk also has times when he makes low-level mistakes in order to save money. The style of private aerospace has never been "foolproof", but the pursuit of short, flat and fast, and results. Musk said that if the number of failures is not too large, it means that the innovation is not enough.
But after all, China and the United States have different national conditions. The United States is vast and sparsely populated, and SpaceX's launch site is located on the Gulf of Mexico coast on the border between Texas and Mexico.
Chinese people are densely populated, and experimenting in densely populated areas like Gongyi, Henan Province, choosing a pit saves money, saves time and reduces costs. But this mistake has pushed commercial space to the forefront.
Although there were no casualties, such an accident is still worth pondering. In the next step, there may be a question mark over whether the local area of Henan, including other similar commercial space engine test sites, will still allow the full-thrust test run of rockets.
But as for "the next estimate of the test run will be moved to the northwest desert no man's land", it may not be realistic. Because the size limit of domestic state-owned rockets was 3.35 meters, it was limited by the size of the train tunnel 50 years ago or even 150 years ago.
The new generation of rockets has now been expanded to 3.8 meters in diameter to fully fit multiple engines and achieve recovery in configurations such as a center layout. Transporting it to the northwest for experiments requires crossing mountains and mountains, and railway transportation is inevitably restricted.
With the newly built highway, the tunnel section may be larger, and whether it can be done is also a question mark. If the densely populated area no longer allows full-thrust testing (noise is also a problem), and does not go to the northwest or in the densely populated area, it is feasible to go to the slightly less populated northern coast of Jiangsu.
In short, innovation and security are still the two ends of mutual control.
to determine if precautions can be taken to avoid similar incidents.
We need to recognize that a rocket is a highly dangerous and complex piece of equipment that requires strict safety measures and professional operators to ensure its safe operation.
I hope that this time things will be exchanged for a more stable development of the industry.
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Author|Tang Jiehu
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